journal article·2026-02-28Open access

Personalized AI-Directed Tutoring for Oral Proficiency Enhancement in Language Education

Pranav Tushar, Bowen Zhang, Indriyati Atmosukarto, Donny Soh, Rong Tong, Ian McLoughlin

Applied Sciences· Volume 16· Issue 5

Abstract

Generative AI offers transformative potential for scalable, personalized, and dynamic language education, particularly in enhancing oral proficiency among young learners. However, effective deployment remains challenging due to limited resources for some languages, the need for age-appropriate content and tools, and the importance of respecting cultural relevance. In this paper, we introduce LEARN (Language Evaluation via question Answer generation from caRtooNs), a culturally grounded multilingual visual dialogue system designed to support oral proficiency in three of Singapore’s official languages: Mandarin, Bahasa Melayu, and Tamil. English, as the lingua franca, is excluded. LEARN integrates a teacher-facing module for curriculum-aligned visual question-answering task creation and a student-facing module for voice-driven adaptive dialogue, optimized for children’s speech. Unlike existing platforms, LEARN prioritizes cultural relevance and low-resource language support, helping address gaps in heritage language preservation. Pilot studies with students demonstrate significant improvements in engagement and vocabulary acquisition. Designed for classroom as well as home use, LEARN presents a scalable AI-driven language tutoring framework.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Multimodal Machine Learning Applications · Speech and dialogue systems · Topic Modeling

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

ICT Cluster, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore 828608, Singapore

College of Computing and Data Science, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore

National Engineering Research Center of Speech and Language Information Processing, The University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230052, China

Funding

National Research Foundation, Singapore

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